Today, I went into Pat Catans with a very specific idea in mind. I needed one things and I was convinced that they had to have it. I searched far and wide for that thing. But this thing I could not find. So of course I had to come up with another idea mid-search so that I didn’t leave one of my favorite places empty handed (also, if you spent over $30 you got a free yankee candle, hell yeah). So I dug deep in my brain to think of things I had still wanted to do for the apartment (apartment tour coming in the next few months!) and I remembered that I was super irritated with the fact that I couldn’t find my keys at least three times on the day that we moved in and stayed there, and viola, the Key Hanger idea entered my brain and I was set on that. I am super happy with the way this project turned out. It was super easy and You can personalize it to your own style! Here is how I did it!

I purchased all of these items from Pat Catans. I bought a round piece of wood, and I bought it with the bark on the sides because I thought it would give it a bit more ~personality~. I had no idea what I wanted on the wood at first, but I stumbled upon the adorable lock/key wood cut-out and I knew I needed that on the hanger because, duh, I am going to hang keys on it! My ideas started running from there. I saw the cute little wooden hearts, and I knew I needed those. I decided then that I was going to put a quote on the hanger as well. I bought letter stencils at this point. They look like letters that would be on some sort of shipping crate, and I liked how that looked. I then decided that having the background just be the wood would be boring; I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with the end product if I didn’t get a little ~extra~ with it. So I bought the flower stencil because flowers are cute, duh. For the stenciling, I bought little “stamper” brushes in order to dab, dab, dab my letters and the flowers on the wood. Finally, I found the actual hooks, which took me for freaking EVER (Thanks for rearranging the store, my hometown Pat Catans >:-(…). Anywho, I found them and I settled on these cute hooks. I liked how they were while, and had the wooden ball on the end, and I thought it would match well with the bark on the sides! I also bought a hook for the back so I could hang it, I just used screws from home to adhere these things to the hanger, and I used acrylic paint for everything.

To start off, I painted one of the little hearts a baby pink color, and I let that dry on the side. Then, I drilled the holes so I knew where my hooks would go and also attached the hook to the back of the hanger, like sooooo….

It’s important that your screws are not longer than the depth of your wood, because then the screw will go through the wood, leaving a gaping hole, and you will be one sad DIYer. Also make sure when drilling the holes you don’t go through the wood either. The same sadness will occur.

Next, I dove in to dabbing on my white paint with my flower stencil. I wanted it to look imperfect, so I didn’t try to hard to keep all of the flowers in line. I was going from the rustic, distressed look…….and it turned out like this!

Some flowers are darker than others and some are faded. I think this make it look “older” in a way.

Next, I stenciled in the letters. This was definitely a challenge. These letters are not perfect by any means, but they give the piece some character by not being perfect. As we all know, I am a bit impatient, so the flaws in the letters are mostly due to the fact that I wanted to see the end result out of excitement! So I would dab too hard or more on to the next letter too fast. For the best results, just be patient and wait until the first letter dries!

Finally, my letters were done and I added on the heart and the key/lock. I then screwed in my hooks with a bit of a stagger. The aren’t completely even, and I promise I did that on purpose! I think it looks very rustic and it will fit really well in my new apartment! and viola! The finished product!

I hope you enjoyed this DIY, and I hope you will try it out for yourself! I would love to see everyone’s own style! Thanks!

Hello all!! Lately I have been super into the denim skirt trend, but not into the spending money trend lol! Denim skirts are very trendy right now, and you can get them for “affordable prices” but I need better than affordable. I need dirt cheap! I decided that I wanted to make something that is totally mine and unique AND friendly to my bank account. Here’s what you’ll need!

Denim skirt

Hot glue gun/glue sticks

Scissors

Ribbon/fabric/any decorative thing you want

Pins/ bobby pins (for hemming)

This was literally sooo easy and soooo affordable! I got my skirt from Goodwill. It was a very lucky find! I paid $3.25 for the skirt. This is the original state of the skirt:

It was a little long for my taste, so I tried the skirt on and cut around the bottom to my liking and I made sure it wasn’t too short (you may have to leave the back slightly longer if it is real denim). This skirt was not real denim. It was more of a stretchy material, but it still looks denim. This is why I didn’t try to “fray” the bottom like I originally planned. I then folded the part I cut under (inside the skirt) and pinned it so it would all stay the same length. You could sew it, but I am lazy and again, I like immediate results because I am impatient, and I used a glue gun to make the hem of the skirt. I just went around the whole bottom of he skirt. I then took this ribbon (?) type stuff that I got from Pat Catans and I clued it around the pocketed area. I thought this gave it a cute accent and I can still pretty much wear it with anything! This is the final result!

And here is a close up of the ribbon I used:

I did this DIY in probably 30 minutes. It was super easy, cheap, and fun! And now I have a new cute skirt that is all my own! Hope you enjoyed!

If you don’t already know, I’m getting ready to move in to my first apartment! I have been very busy getting things together and figuring out what I want to do with the place. I am so thankful that I have people in my life willing to help me with this part of my life. Furniture is so expensive now days and it is difficult to afford these things as a college student. Luckily, I do have these great people and family members who have provided me with some old furniture and other apartment supplies! For this post, I will be talking about these side tables that I got from my grandpa!

I have 2 identical side tables. This is how they started out. I’m guessing they are pretty old, considering my grandpa has had them ever since I can remember and the way they are out together is a bit old-fashioned. There was also a lot of scratches and damages to the table top. Now I am gonna tell you everything I used to make them new again!

Varnish stripper (I got mine at Menards! I tried a few different kinds to see which one worked best. I found that the stripper that foamed up worked the best for me).

Sand paper

Rubber gloves

Putty knife/scraping utensil

Paint tray/ container to put stripper in

Detail sander/ regular sander

Wood bleach

Polyurethane

Sponge

Sponge brushes

Cardboard to sit your project on

This project took a while to finish. Mostly because I didn’t really have a clear idea on what I wanted to do with the tables. I knew that I wanted to bleach them or stain them again, so I set off to strip the original varnish off of them as a start. This process is not easy and it is very time consuming. Patience is definitely necessary when stripping wood, especially very old wood. The stripping process took about 6-7 hours total.

The stripper that I decided worked best was a kind of foam. It foamed up and you let it sit for 15 minutes, then you take your scraper and attempt to scrape off the old varnish. You have to let the stripper soak in before any varnish will come up. I repeated the stripped process 3-4 times on each table because this table was VARNISHED af. It had so many layers!! So after that I let them sit and dry. We washed them down after we were finished stripping them.

***ALSO: the stripper I used was extremely irritating to the skin so please please use gloves when applying it!!***

They dried within a day and this is the finished product after being stripped:

As you can tell, it is not as shiny or smooth looking as the original picture and the scratches and damages seem to be gone.

I let these sit for a few weeks after stripping them trying to decide what to do. I decided I wanted a more rustic feel, so I decided to bleach them. I decided I only wanted to bleach the table-top and make them somewhat 2-toned.

The bleaching process was super easy and I would totally do it again. I was concerned that my wood bleach wouldn’t be enough for both tables, but I had a ton left over! This is the table before bleaching:

You can see that the table is more of a matte brown. It’s all one color and fairly dark. This is how I applied the bleach (excuse my horrid looking self). The bleach I purchased was from Menards. It had solution A and solution B. If you have a soft wood, you apply solution A and let it sit for 5 minutes (hard wood let sit for 10-15) and then after that you apply solution B to the surface. I applied he solutions with a sponge, but make sure to use 2 separate sponges and bowls for the solutions! After bleaching, you’re supposed to let it sit and dry over night. If you want the color to be even lighter, repeat the process! I sanded my tables after every bleaching process.

This is the final result of the bleached tables!

I ended up repeating the bleaching process 3 times. I did this on a pretty hot day and they dried up quick (I’m an immediate results kinda gal). As you can see, they lightened up a lot!!

***My skin didn’t burn as aggressively from the bleach compared to the stripper but you should definitely still wear gloves!!***

Finally, I painted on some polyurethane to seal everything in. The polyurethane definitely darkens the table a tiny bit after the bleaching, but it will dry lighter. And viola! The final product!

I am so happy with how these turned out and I learned a lot from the process!! I don’t know how keen I will be on stripping wood in the future, but now I know how to do it!

So with tomorrow being fathers day, I decided to post a little DIY that I came up with that I made for my Grandpa! My grandpa is in a nursing home, so there we were kinda limited with gifts to get him. He has very few interests, especially after his stroke, but there are a few things that make him happy and one of those is racing. One of the first conversations he had with us after his stroke was about his memories of his cars and racing back in the day. He has come a long way since his stroke, and we just didn’t know what to do for him since he doesn’t live at home anymore, so we decided his room needed a little sprucing up at the nursing home! I suggested a wreath, because that’s festive, and there’s nothing wrong with being festive all year round. I knew that I didn’t want to just buy him any old wreath, because thats impersonal and no fun! So I decided to incorporate something he loves into it (surprise, it’s race car themed). Of course, you can recreate this wreath with any colors, fabrics, and add-ons that you want! Here’s how I did it!

First, you will need a few things to get started!

wreath ring (however large you like; bigger ring = more tooling)

tool/burlap/ribbon (preferably with wire in it to hold shape, i usually just guesstimate how much I will need, but I bough about 3 yards of it)

wire

scissors

hot glue gun and hot glue

mesh tubing (this is extra just for some fun! I only used a small amount of this)

any add ons that you would like (mine were toy cars)

Wreath Ring

Tooling

Wire

Mesh Tubing

I am someone who likes to just tackle projects, so I never really measure how much stuff I use. I do know that I used the whole tube of tool that I bought, but I had left-overs of everything else.

My biggest tip if you get stuck is to look up how to make a burlap wreath on Youtube. I have made wreathes before, and I used burlap. You will use the same technique no matter the fabric you purchase. A wreath ring should have 3 smaller rings inside the ring. This is how you get the beautiful “tufts” of the ribbon or tool around your ring. Basically, you go through the smallest ring first, wrapping the first few inches of tool around the ring and then using your wire to adhere it to the ring. You could also use hot glue if you wanted. Next, you weave the ribbon, leaving “tufts” of it in-between each new section of the ring. When you reach the top ring, you will want to twist your tool, and start in the bottom ring again and repeat the weaving (I refer to this as the weave-and-twist). If you notice in the picture of the ring, there are 4 sections in the ring. I usually do 2-3 weave-and-twists in each section of the wreath. Depending on your fabric, you can do more or less, but you want it to be very dense. You don’t want gaps on the wreath, or you’ll be able to see the rings underneath. Weave-and-twist until you have something that looks like this:

You can then adjust your “tufts” and finish the body of the wreath by tying it down with wire or hot glue. I used all of my tool, about 3 yards, for this wreath.

Next comes the fun! Decorating! So I wanted this to ~kinda~ look like a checkered flag. I looked for checkered ribbon at my local Pat Catan’s, but they didn’t have any so I had to do my best to improvise. I decided on the black tool and the silver/black mesh tubing. So, to do the “checkers” I used the mesh tubing and cut off about 8 inches for each “checker”. I folded it over each other into something that looks like this: (and binded it together with wire)

I then placed these somewhat sporadically throughout the wreath where I thought they would look a bit like checkers.

Finally, I added the cars I bought and viola! A race car themed wreath!

I ended up spending only 20$ on all of the supplies listed, so this is an easy, cheap solution to someone who is stumped on what to get someone!

Hi everyone! I’ve been MIA for a hot second, but thats because I have been working on a lot of projects for my new apartment! I have been doing a lot to make my new apartment my own and to make it feel like home, and just seeing the final product of these chairs has inspired me to continue. This project was my favorite one, and I have been so excited to show it to you! I am gonna show you lots of before/after shots and tell you exactly how I achieved the perfect style for my taste!

Let’s start with the origin of these chairs. My grandpa has been in a nursing home for over a year now due to a stroke. Unfortunately, we do not think that he will ever be able to return home and live on his own, so we have been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing of his house. My grandpa was what some may call a hoarder, but I’d like to refer to him as a collector. It just sounds better and is more mysterious. He has just about anything anyone could ever want, including tires, engines, old cars, tools, nick nacks, cooking appliances, lawn care appliances; seriously, you name it, he has it. SO, we go over there to do some minor cleaning and my dad sees these chairs. Turns out, there are 6 chairs to the set and they are basically hidden sporadically throughout the house. After we find all of them, I was convinced that they needed to be saved. We could only find 5 of the chairs, and one was completely snapped in half, but I figured I could make something out of it. These chairs are probably somewhere around 60-70 years old, if not older. They belonged to my great grandma and were just passed down.

Now, onto the process. These chairs were in bad shape. The varnish was just naturally coming off of them, some of the rungs were broken, and they were just really dirty. Everything about them was just…old. Here is an example of the state these were in.

As you can tell, I didn’t have much to work with here. I starter with covering the seats since I wanted to upholster them, and I thought it would be fairly easy. I went to JoAnn Fabrics and got 5 seat cushions, or foam squares, and picked out a pattern that met my fancy. I picked this multi-colored, mandala-ish pattern because I liked the colors and I thought it would give the apartment some pizzazz. This is the pattern I chose.

To upholster the seats, I took the seats off of the chairs, which basically consisted of using a screwdriver and unscrewing the screws from the back/bottom of the chairs. I then had 4 chair seats, and one seat that would become a bench. Lucky for me, my foam squares matched almost perfect to the actual shape of the seat. I ended up cutting off some foam on the sides but then adding it to the top since my seat was a bit longer vertically and it was narrower at the back of the seat than the front. I then covered the foam and the seat with my fabric. (I got 2 yards of fabric, and I just cut it myself into squares by just putting the seat + foam on the fabric and drawing in marker where I wanted to cut it, leaving room for the fabric to cover the top completely and enough room to staple the fabric underneath the seat). I left about 3-4 inches of fabric on each side so I had enough fabric to be stapled onto the bottom of the seat. Now, this was my first time ever upholstering anything, so it was a learning experience for me. I looked a bit into it on Pinterest, but other than that I was going in blind. I stapled, with a staple gun, the sides of the chair first, then front and back. I saved the corners for last. When doing the corners, I found that it was easiest to slightly twist them so that you can pull from both sides of the fabric, and finally I stapled that corners down. I finished 5 seats in a matter of an hour. I was pleasantly surprised by how little effort was needed to do this. This was my final product for the seats.

Next up, I had to make the decision of what color to paint the chairs and how I was going to do it. I decided that I wanted to use minimal effort and high efficiency when painting these chairs. I am not a woman with patience, so spray painting the chairs was the best option for me. I went to Menards and picked out 2 colors because I am indecisive and impulsive. My gut told me that navy blue and grey would look good together, so thats what I bought. I bought Rustoleum spray-paint with primer included, because if you can kill two birds with one stone, why not? I’m all about saving time because again, I am impatient and I desire immediate results. I sanded down and washed off the chairs, and then began the painting! I ended up using 1 can each for all of the chairs. It took me about 2 hours to paint all of the chairs. I did 2 coats each since I missed some spots the first time around. Here are the results of the painting.

This is the chair w/o the seat before paint.

This is the chair after; a totally new chair!

Aaaaaaand the final result of all of the chairs painted (don’t mind the messy garage; my dad has some spring cleaning to do!).

I let these sit about 2 days just to make sure they were dry. Today, my dad and I screwed the seats back on to the chairs, and they turned out better than I ever imagined. I feel like these chairs now have a second chance at life!

And viola! The final product!

***BONUS DIY: How To Make A Stool Out Of A Broken Chair***

Earlier in this post I said that there were actually 6 chairs; one was lost in the house somewhere and the other was snapped in half. Well, I couldn’t just leave the snapped one there. I was originally just going to use the broken one for practice; the seat was fine and the legs were fine, the back had just been broken off.

As you can see, it was a pretty gnarly break right off of the back of the chair. Halfway through my project with the chairs I decided to give this little broken chair a second chance too, so I made it into a stool! I proceeded with the same process as all of the other chairs, I upholstered the seat, and cleaned the chair. But obviously, I didn’t want a stool with wood sticking out to poke someone! So my dad and I sawed the broken part off and made the frame completely even all the way around. We then sanded it and cleaned it off so it was ready to paint. Finally we screwed the seat on and viola, an adorable stool!

I hope you guys liked this DIY because I was super excited to show you how to do it! More DIY’s coming soon!

I will start this off very simple. Kohls has amazing deals, therefore I buy a lot when the deals are in season. If you’re a member, then there are even more deals. Lucky for me, my mom is a member and got a crazy amount of coupons! I have been looking for clothes that I can wear for work this summer in an office setting, so I picked up a few things for that purpose!

First off, I found this adorable baby-doll shirt for $10.00 from the brand Rewind. It is black with a silver/gold collar, and I think it would look cute with jeans or white dress pants. You can definitely dress this up or down for any occasion!

Next, I got this very simple periwinkle (it looks grey, but its more purple-ish) t-shirt for $9.00 from APT. 9. I thought this would go well again with white dress pants and accessorized with pearls!

This adorable asymmetrical bay-doll shirt caught my eye because of its bright blue and funky pattern! It is from the brant ELLE and I got it for $10.00.

This one looked more comfy to me than anything, and I am allllll about comfort in the workplace! I am a huge fan of stripes as well, so it really worked for me. I got this for $8.00, also from APT. 9. The sleeves also attracted me because they flare out at the ends, and of course the opening in the chest is a bit edgy!

My final, and favorite shirt I got was this adorable red long-sleeve from ELLE again. It is a very silky fabric and I am a huge fan of the ruffles! I got this for $10.00.

We also had $20 in KohlsCash and 20% off the whole purchase, which brought them down even more. Love the deals, love Kohls!

This weekend I did a lot of adventuring/shopping/bargain hunting and I came out with some pretty solid deals! I am gonna tell you guys where I shopped this weekend, what I purchased, and how much they were!

Saturday my mom and grandma came up to Kent State for a visit. We ate at Mike’s Place. If you ever happen to find yourself in Kent, Ohio, you should definitely go to Mike’s. They have an array of food, but especially lots of breakfast food selection! It is usually the place to go after a long night out (since pancakes fix every problem, including a hangover). Then we went to downtown Kent. It was a pretty rainy day, so it wasnt very fun walking around downtown, but we managed to get to Peace, Love, & Little Donuts. We also went into Gracie Lane, which is basically a little shop with jewelry, scarves, Vera Bradley, and just kind of girly stuff. This brings me to my first purchase!

I picked up this adorable t-shirt from Simply Southern at Gracie Lane. It was $17.00, and I absolutely had to have it. I just loved that back, and I feel like it will be super cute for the summer!

Next we went to my favorite place, Gabes. I had to take my mom and grandma there and teach them the ways of bargain hunting. I have 2 jobs this summer, so I have been looking for some work professional clothing/outfits. I got lucky at Gabes this time!

My first item is palazzo pants! I have worn pants similar to these in the past, and they are just so comfy! They look cute, they are super comfy, and you can wear them for any occasion. You can easily dress them up for an office job, or dress down for going out. These are Robert Louis pants and I got them for $8.00.

I got this adorable skirt from Gabes as well. I got it for $12.00. It goes a little bit past my knees, but I think it would be super cute for spring/summer. It also seems like it would be very comfortable and freeing!

My mom and grandma also got lucky! My mom got a few different skirts for work as well, and toys for my dog. My grandma got a cute polka-dot button down and this gorgeous painting for her hallway!

Today, I went to the Aurora Farms Premium Outlets in Aurora, Ohio with my friend Sammy. I went into this spree thinking that I wouldn’t get anything, but I was very wrong. They had so many great deals!!! Let’s start with my items from Banana Republic.

If you know me, you know that I absolutely hate wearing shorts. Shorts are the devil for thick girls. I have quite thick thighs, and I am not ashamed, I just personally do not like my inner thighs rubbing together until they bleed (yes, this has happened before). BUT, every year I try shorts because who wants to be in pants in 80 degree weather?? SO this is my attempt for this year, and I think I am in love. These shorts are long enough to cover where I usually rub, and short enough to not look like awkward jorts. They are sooo comfy and almost a little stretchy, and the patterns are adorable for summer. I got both of these on sale for $7.00.

Next I got these adorable shirts! I think these would be great as office attire as well. The green shirt was $7.00 as well, and has an adorable tie-up front. It is a super comfortable material and I plan on wearing it with one of the pairs of shorts I got. The grey stripes was $10.00, and I am in love with the sleeves! They are so unique, and there are cute embellishments around the neckline as well. (Peep my pink toes, oops.)

My next stop was Coach. I didn’t even want to go into the store, because as a bargain shopper, Coach isn’t exactly the place for deals. BUT, today was different. My friend Sammy wanted to go in, so I followed, and little did I know that everything in the store would be 50% off of it’s already marked down price! I could not pass up this deal!

I got this adorable tan/gold wristlet! It has cardholders on the inside, and I decided to use it for my keys and cards that I cary with me at all times. This beauty was originally $75.00, and I ended up taking it home for $19.00! This was such a steal, and I will carry it with me wherever I go. I am so excited to use it!

Finally, I am gonna show you guys my OOTD for shopping at the outlets!

I got my sunglasses a while back from Charming Charlie’s. I think I split them with my mom and they were like 2 pairs for $15.00. My shirt is from TJ Maxx, and it doubles as a dress (or, I guess it is a dress that doubles as a shirt, lol). I just tie them in a knot in th front or on the side and it’s fool proof! I think I paid $10.00-$15.00 for it. My jeans are form American Eagle, and they were $45.00. My shoes were from Kohl’s and I got them a few years ago and I think they are the brand SOS. I think they were anywhere from $10.00-$20.00. Finally, my purse! My purse is from Plato’s Closet, and it is a Steve Madden. I stumbled upon this gorgeous thang over spring break and I have been using it an wearing it ever since. It matches so much that I wear, and it is big enough to keep all my crap in. I can imagine this was originally very expensive, but I go it for $16.00.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading about my weekend and all of the things I bought! Thank you for tuning in and I will probably show you guys future outfits that incorporate these clothes! Ciao!